Comarcas of Spain

In Spain, a comarca (Template:IPA)Template:Efn is a traditional informal territorial division, comprising several municipalities sharing geographical, economic or cultural traits, typically with not well defined limits. Modernly, they have been formally defined for all the autonomous communities of Spain, as territorial entities intermediate between the municipality and the province, although their status ranges from official and with administrative functions (providing common local government services) in some communities, to unofficial and based on mere preliminary studies in other communities.

In English, a comarca is equivalent to an area, county, district, or zone.

Legally defined comarcas

In 1985, a law was passed permitting territorial divison into comarcas by each autonomous community.Template:Sfn Template:Sfn Because comarcas are subdivisions created by autonomous regions and not the state, their boundaries may overlap the boundaries of provinces within their respective autonomous community, creating instances in which a comarca has territory in more than one province.Template:Sfn

The large majority of legally defined comarcas are in Catalonia (42) and Aragon (33), and are regulated by law and are governed by a comarcal council with specified powers. There are seven comarcas formally registered in Basque Country and one, El Bierzo, in Castile and León.Template:Sfn In Andalusia, Galicia, Valencia and Asturias, comarcas are defined by regional law but lack any specific function.

Informal comarcas

In other regions, comarcas are traditional or historical or in some cases, contemporary creations designed for tourism promotions. In some other cases (e.g. La Carballeda) a comarca may correspond to a natural area, like a valley, river basin and mountainous area, or even to historical regions overlapping different provinces and ancient kingdoms (e.g. Ilercavonia).Template:Sfn

In such comarcas or natural regions municipalities have resorted to organizing themselves in Template:Lang (commonwealth), like the Taula del Sénia, the only legal formula that has allowed those comarcas to manage their public municipal resources meaningfully.Template:Citation needed

There is also a comarca, the Cerdanya that is divided between two states, the southwestern half being counted as a comarca of Spain, while the northeastern half is part of France.

Relationship to other groups of municipalities

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There are also other groupings of municipalities in Spain including provinces, mancomunidades, metropolitan areas and the major islands of the Canary Islands and the Balearic Islands.

Legally defined comarcas have their boundaries and functions defined by the relevant regional government (autonomous community) and so do not necessarily have boundaries consistent with provinces which are defined by the State.Template:Sfn The remit of comarcas is very similar to that of the provinces and has been criticised for duplication.Template:Sfn However in Catalonia, the comarca (and not the province) has been the traditional territorial organisation.Template:Sfn